Moderates at Almedalen: fight against exclusion
Today is the conservative Moderate Party's day at the Almedalen political week, and this morning party leader Anna Kinberg Batra spoke to Swedish Radio about the Moderates' proposal to make it easier for young people and immigrants to get jobs in Sweden.
The Moderate Party's proposals are aimed to improve integration and combat against so-called alienation or exclusion.
"There are those who have left the labor market for various reasons, but a new type being excluded is also starting to appear. Some of this group are young people who have not received their first job yet, and maybe have not completed high school, others are immigrants who have, for example, little education or women who are prevented by their situation from getting a job. And if someone never gets that first job or enters the labor market at all there can be enormous consequences for both the individual and society," Kinberg Batra said.
In order to make these groups more attractive to the labor market, the Moderates, among other things, want more people to be able to attend continuing adult education, so that they are able to then go to college or university, offer more people so-called work Swedish - which is a special program for teaching Swedish aimed at those in specific professions - and allow long-term unemployed and newly-landed immigrants to go to various work-introduction programs, which give someone a lower salary while they are training at a new job.
Friday morning Kinberg Batra also answered questions about a new poll that shows a majority of the Moderates' supporters want to see a new election in Sweden. She defended the so-called December Agreement by saying it was the "least bad alternative" and said that her party needs to simply be more clear and get a better result in the next election in 2018.
"I think that there are many Moderate voters who wish that it would have gone differently last fall. Clearly it is frustrating to lose an election and we have to learn a lesson from that and come back stronger. The journey begins with politics and the politics' substance," Kinberg Batra said.
However, she said that she was not considering ruling together with the Social Democrats.
"I do not want to be a supporting party in order for the Social Democrats to rule the country in the way they have so far. There are important differences, not the least of all with economic policy. I do not want to negotiate how much job taxes should be raised or how difficult it should be to get your first job," Kinberg Batra said.
Friday night at 19:00 Kinberg Batra will deliver her first Almedalen speech ever as Moderate party leader.
